ZILLE IN R1 MILLION A MONTH TENDER SAGA

Thecontroversial multimillion-rand relationship between Western Cape
Premier Helen Zille and marketing and advertising agency TBWA/Hunt
Lascaris has been extended even though it was supposed to end on
December 31.

The New Age can reveal today that the contract, opposition parties claim
to be for image boosting and a waste of taxpayers’ money, has not ended
and has been extended by another year.

According to leaked documents in the possession of The New Age, this comes at a cost of R1m a month for taxpayers.

The as yet unannounced extension of the contract states that Hunt
Lascaris/TBWA will be paid a further R6m for the first six months of
this year and a further R1m a month for the remaining six months.

The documents also reveals that the Western Cape provincial government
director-general Brent Gerber, sent a letter to Mr A Joemat,
superintendent-general in the corporate services centre, at the end of
May last year. In the letter Gerber said that there was an “in-principle
decision not to extend the current communication contract with TBWA on
expiry”. This decision was accepted by Zille.

The letter states: “I had a discussion with Premier Zille on May 28, 2012 on this same topic.

“Premier Zille agrees with the decision not to extend the current TBWA
contract upon the expiry and affirms that the department should embark
upon a fresh procurement process for branding and communication services
for the Western Cape government.”

The letter is signed by Gerber and copied to Nick Clelland and Carol Avenant, the chairperson of the bid committee.

Two weeks before the contract with Hunt Lascaris was due to end last
month the bid and adjudication committee in Zille’s department started a
new process to extend the contract.

It’s “purpose” specifically declares the extension of the contract. The
second leaked document’s purpose, also in the possession of The New Age,
reveals: “To obtain approval to enter into negotiation with TBWA to
extend the contract for an initial period of six months with the option
to extend the contract further, providing the contract will not be
extended for more than 12 months.”

On Monday Zille confirmed to The New Age that the contract had been
extended. She said that TBWA “are paid as their services are utilised”
with no fixed monthly fee.

She said the extension was “perfectly allowable in terms of the existing
contract and made by the director-general, not the Premier”. The
contract, she said, adhered “to all regulations, policies and
prescripts”.

The process took longer than originally planned, due to “fastidious
attention to detail”. Her comments were received through her
spokesperson Zak Mbhele. Gerber said questions to him would be covered
by that response.

The bid document states, under the headline “Financial Implication”:
“The estimated cost of the six-month extension would be R6m. For each
month that the contract is extended after the initial six month period
the estimated cost per month would be R1m.”

It is signed by the chairperson of the bid committee, Avenant and also
signed by committee members Clelland and Drikus Basson and dated
December 14.

Zille was at the centre of a scandal two years ago when it was
discovered that she had given a R70m a year tender to consultancy
TBWA/Hunt Lascaris to put a public spin on the provincial government she
leads. The millions were and are being spent to polish the image of
Zille and her province and became the subject of an investigation by the
public protector’s office.

Claims were made of irregularities in awarding the contract, including
that two of her advisers sat on the adjudication panel. Public Protector
Thuli Madonsela’s final report, though not damning of the process, said
it would have been wiser not to include two of the six people on the
adjudication panel, Zille’s special advisers, Ryan Coetzee and Gavin
Davis, when the tender was awarded to Hunt Lascaris/TBWA. The public
protector found four instances of maladministration in the process,
which Zille described as a “storm in a teacup”.